Rackspace Hosts a GNU/Linux Legend

Filed in by Thomas "Tweeks" Weeks | May 19, 2009 9:38 am

On April 20th, we hosted a very special guest from the Free Software Foundation and GNU/Linux software [1]community. Our special guest was, none other than Richard Stallman[2], author of the GPL free software license and the bulk of the GNU+Linux[3] operating system that most Linux distros rely on today (including gcc[4]!).

Stallman was in town to lecture on Free Software at Trinity University[5], but by a lucky turn of events, he stayed at my house for two nights! Since I had his ear, I lured him to the Rack for an FSF.org book signing[6], and then lunch with a few of our uber geeky GNU/Linux guys[7]. We all had fun and I think that we all learned just how far geeky the geek spectrum goes.

Later that night, our user group[8] (xcssa.org) attended and recorded Stallman’s Trinity lecture[9]. I helped Stallman sell off the last of the FSF.org[10] books and t-shirts, raising over $2,100 in funds for the Free Software Foundation.

I must say, hosting Richard Stallman in my home and within my various personal and professional geek circles was a once in a lifetime experience.